The Picket Fence Dream
by Rubber Band Ball
Summary: She was in love with Oliver Wood. The only problem was, he didn’t have a clue.
1. Prologue

The Picket Fence Dream

By Rubber Band Ball

Prologue

He was graduating this year. Graduating. Next year he'd be off to play for that Puddlemere United team. It wasn't that she wasn't happy for him. She really was. She wasn't stupid or anything— she knew that playing for Puddlemere United had been his childhood dream. 

Inside she too secretly dreamed of the perfect future. First she would become the Gryffindor Qudditch Captain, then she would graduate with outstanding marks from Hogwarts, and then get drafted for a famous Qudditch team (preferably the Tornadoes, but she would take on any decent team). After years of being a successful Chaser, she would retire (of course by then she would be buried in money), meet the perfect guy, marry him, have kids, and settle down.

It was the perfect picket fence dream.

She had thought up all of this quite early on—before she had started Hogwarts, even. She even had recurring dreams about it. About the summer nights where she would just sit with her husband out on the porch swing, gazing at the starts. They would be all cuddled up, and they would talk in soft voices to each other. About the kids they would have, and how she and her husband would read bedtime stories to them. About the exciting Qudditch matches that would take place, always with her scoring (at the bare minimum) forty points. 

There was only one thing that bothered her. In her dreams she would never see her husband's face. Curiosity was killing her quite easily. Yet every time she came close to seeing his face, he would either back away or she would wake up.

Talk about life being unfair. 

But one night during the past summer…she finally saw the face she waited so long to catch a glimpse at. Dream Husband had turned around to plant a quick peck on her cheek before heading off to work when she saw his face. It was kind and warm and loving. She couldn't help but love him more than ever before in that one moment. 

The face she had seen was _his f_ace.

And the strangest thing of all was that she wasn't surprised, disgusted, or even shocked. She was overjoyed. It seemed as if she could live the rest of her life just knowing that _he _loved her and he was hers forever and ever…

God, did she scare herself sometimes.  

But ever since that night, in the back of her mind, she knew that she was in fallen in love with him. She wouldn't admit it to anyone or even herself, but that didn't change the fact that the feelings for him were there. She was in love with Oliver Wood. The only problem was, he didn't have a clue.        


	2. Chapter One

The Picket Fence Dream

By Rubber Band Ball

Chapter One

"-Beckham's my favorite, he really knows how to play, you know?" Katie Bell said to Dean Thomas, who nodded in agreement.

"Katie!"

A dark skinned girl caught up to them. "There you are! I've been looking all over for you," she exclaimed, pulling Katie into a hug. 

"Hey Alicia…I'm sure you've met Dean," Katie said after pulling away. "He's in Harry's year…"

"I don't think so, but nice to meet you." Alicia stretched out her hand, and Dean took it, and a bit of colour went into Alicia's face. "So how's your summer been?" she asked Dean. Katie looked away from the conversation.

She was a fifth year now. That meant O.W.L.'s…She sighed inwardly. She was pretty bad at taking tests. It wasn't that she didn't study or anything—she was a pretty good student, actually. It was just that as the teacher would hand out the papers, her brain would freeze up and go into panic mode. In the end, Katie always managed to scrape by with nearly full marks, but the idea of test taking still terrified her.

_I guess I'll just have to deal with it_, she thought.

"Katie!"

"What?" She snapped out of her thoughts and her sight was focused once again on Alicia. 

"I said, it's time to go," her friend pointed out. "Have you already gotten your luggage on the train yet?"

"Oh…yeah, I have," she answered. "I'll go ahead…get on the train." She turned away, leaving her friends staring at her strangely.

It had happened again. Lately, she was always off thinking in her own little world. And what disturbed her a bit was that her thoughts wandered off to a handsome seventh year more often than not. She didn't want to be constantly thinking of him. I mean, come on, she thought, I'm two years his junior! Two years is an eternity. Two years is the difference between 18 and 16, 20 and 18, 30 and 28!

While thinking all of this, Katie made her way to an empty compartment. As she was beginning to sit down, the compartment door slid open. "Hey!" Alicia Spinnet poked her head through the doorway.

Alicia nodded in response, as she sat down. Angelina Johnson, another Gryffindor Chaser and friend, the Weasley twins, and Lee Jordan soon followed her.

"Hello, hello," George Weasley shouted jovially, throwing his arms around Katie. She replied with a smile. 

"Hey George, how've you been?" she exclaimed, hugging him back. 

After all the greetings were finished, everyone sat down. Fred and Angelina started to talk about O.W.L.'s, Lee started writing in a small book, and George and Alicia started a game of wizard chess. Katie smiled and pulled out one of her favorite muggle books and began reading.

An hour and a half later, the quiet buzz of the compartment was interrupted with the sound of the compartment door slamming open. Katie looked up from her book, annoyed. Really, did people have any decency? Instead, her eyes locked with those of a particularly Scottish Keeper. 

"Oliver?" The minute the word escaped from her mouth, Katie wished she hadn't said anything at all. His name had come out rather croakily, for she had very nearly lost her voice as soon as she saw him. Oliver Wood did those sorts of things to her—and she hated it. She blushed immediately, realizing that he was staring at her rather intently, and focused her eyes to the compartment wall.

"Oliver, mate, what are you doing here?" Fred cried, clapping their Quidditch captain on the back rather forcefully. "You haven't scheduled a Quidditch practice already for the tomorrow, have you?"

"No, of course not," Oliver replied. "I wouldn't schedule a Quidditch practice for the second day of school. It would be much too soon."

There was a sigh of relief that circulated around the compartment. So Oliver Wood wasn't completely bonkers after all. 

"We've got practice on the third day of school. Don't be late."

"What?" Fred and George exploded in unison. "Are you mad?" Everyone else looked on with wide eyes. Practice on the third day…even Oliver had never been so desperate before to pull a stunt like that.  

"Do I look mad?" the Keeper replied, arching an eyebrow. When he was answered with silence, he nodded curtly. "Good. I expect you all out on the field ready to play some Quidditch at eight in the morning." With that, he quickly uttered a goodbye and closed the compartment door shut.

"Bloody hell," George garbled. "Who the hell does he think he is?"

"That git is getting on my nerves. Time we do something about it, don't you say?" his twin responded. George nodded and the pair stood up. "C'mon, Lee," Fred said, gesturing to his friend. "Let's go."

The trio filed out of the compartment in silence. As soon as they had gone, Katie started to speak. "You know, it can't be that bad." She picked up her book again and started to read.

"Katie, Katie, Katie," sighed Angelina, shaking her head. "When will you realize that people actually have lives outside of Quidditch? Not everyone is like you and Wood, you know. I don't understand how you can be so obsessive over it anyway."

"What about Wood?" Katie said, jumping to his defense. 

"Oh, Wood's special," Alicia answered, giving a small shrug. "You, however, have the potential to be a normal witch. Grab your chance while you still can."

Katie could not come up with a good enough comeback, so she just gave a small humph and went back to reading. Honestly, and she called these two her friends. They were supposed to support her, not criticize her.       And anyway, what was the real difference between her and Oliver? He was normal…wasn't he? Sure, he was a bit obsessed with Quidditch, and he did have a fan club that consisted of the better part of the Hogwarts female population, but he wasn't a great student or anything. He was a pureblood, Scottish, tall, handsome, charming, and…There she went again. She absolutely hated it when that happened. She would be thinking about one thing, and then he would creep into her thoughts.

This has got to stop, she thought desperately. She couldn't have feelings for him, she just couldn't. It was distracting her from life, from her goals, from everything she worked so hard to create. It wasn't the least bit healthy. 

Besides, she insisted to herself, he would never notice her. She was Katie Bell, the scrawny girl two years younger than him, with stringy blonde hair and a petite build. He was the son any British family would want—smart, athletic, good looking. Hell, she wasn't even good enough to have a crush on him.   

So if she didn't like him—which I don't, she reminded herself firmly—then why was she always thinking about him? Why did the blood rush to her face when she was around him earlier? Why did she want to be around him all the time?

As she felt the Hogwarts Express pull to a halt, Katie promised herself that she would _not_, under any circumstances, fall in love with Oliver Wood.

Unfortunately, she didn't realize that it was already too late to be making any promises of that sort.   


End file.
